If you haven't heard about B-Spec racing yet, you will. Every major racing sanctioning body in the U.S. — SCCA, Grand Am, NASA and World Challenge — will host B-Spec races in 2012. Honda, Mazda, Kia and Fiat are already in. And now, so is Mini.

What's this about? B-Spec is a production-based prep class for subcompact cars. Basically, they're stock B cars, gutted and caged, with similar power and weight and total cost capped at $25,000 (imagine Lemons for new cars).

Other cars already signed on to race B-Spec include the Mazda2, Honda Fit, Kia Rio and Fiat 500. Inexpensive, lightly modified subcompact cars doing serious battle — with a low barrier to entry and cash payouts for podium finishes? This could get interesting.